Ethiopia blocking MSF in Somali Galbeed

[BiLaaL]

Ethiopia blocking MSF in Somali Galbeed

 

By Martin Plaut - BBC Africa editor

 

International aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiers has accused Ethiopia of denying it access to the country's eastern ****** region.

 

The barren region has recently been the scene of a fierce conflict between government troops and rebel forces.

 

The exclusion follows an order to the Red Cross to stop operations in ******.

 

The rebels accuse the government of imposing a blockade and creating what they described as a man-made famine. Ethiopia denies imposing no-go zones.

 

UN mission

 

******, stretching eastwards from the Ethiopian highlands deep into Somalia, is known as Region Five by the Ethiopian government.

 

Click here to see a map of the area

 

A conflict has been raging in the area since April, when fighters of the ****** National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese-run exploration team, killing 74 people.

 

The ONLF, which draws its support from Somali clans, accuses the authorities of imposing a blockade on five districts, choking off commercial trade.

 

Aid agencies say roads have been closed. Prices are reported to have risen sharply.

 

An unpublished report by one aid organisation shows that local people produce only a quarter of the food they need, trading their livestock to pay for the rest.

 

Locals say that the Ethiopians are now escorting some government authorised traders into the area, but there are fears that villagers accused of supporting the rebels may not get access to the food.

 

Some contraband trade is getting through, on the backs of donkeys, but not in very large quantities.

 

The UN is now deeply concerned, and has published a map showing the areas of fighting.

 

It includes areas described as being under a commercial food embargo and one area in which villagers are being forcibly relocated, though the government denies imposing any no-go zones.

 

A UN team - which is now in the region - should throw more light on what is taking place, if they can have unrestricted access to areas of conflict.

[BiLaaL]

VOA - By Alisha Ryu, Nairobi31 August 2007

 

A United Nations fact-finding mission is in Ethiopia's restive ****** region to assess the food, water and health needs of civilians caught amid a military campaign against local separatist rebels. Human rights groups accuse the government of committing serious human rights violations against the civilians. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu recently spoke to several eyewitnesses from the ****** region whose accounts of abuse conflict with Ethiopian government assurances that civilians are not being targeted in its crackdown on the rebels.

 

The eyewitnesses from the ****** region say they are ordinary people with no ties to the ****** National Liberation Front (ONLF), the ethnic Somali separatist group the government in Addis Ababa has been fighting since the mid-1980s.

 

The eyewitnesses are living in exile now, after barely escaping what they say is a brutal government crackdown. They say Ethiopian troops are punishing entire villages and towns in an effort to wipe out the ONLF insurgency once and for all.

 

The ******is agreed to speak on the condition that VOA does not reveal their full names. They say they fear government agents from Addis Ababa may find them and kill them, or members of their family still in the ******, for revealing what they have seen and experienced.

 

College student Ahmed, 27, recalls the day, nearly three months ago, when several dozen Ethiopian troops arrived near his village, 250 kilometers northwest of the town of Dhagahbur.

 

Ahmed acknowledges that ONLF fighters, believed to number several thousand, sometimes hide in villages, after conducting hit-and-run attacks on the Ethiopian military.

 

Ahmed says that day in June, he saw soldiers setting fire to everything until his village and other villages nearby were reduced to ashes. He says the soldiers then gave everyone an ultimatum: leave the area within five days. Anyone who stayed would be killed.

 

Ahmed obeyed the order and fled into the bush, but he says many others refused to leave.

 

Ahmed says the soldiers punished the defiant villagers, killing the men, beating and raping the women, and slaughtering their livestock. He says he later helped collect the bodies for burial.

 

In another interview, Nur, 23, says he worries constantly about his mother and several other family members he has not seen since mid-June.

 

He says that was when Ethiopian soldiers accused them of being ONLF supporters and took them away to a military barrack to be interrogated.

 

Around the same time, Nur says he too, was arrested on similar charges and interrogated with about a half a dozen other men.

 

Nur says during the interrogation, they watched as Ethiopian soldiers killed four of the men by strangling them with sharp metal wires. Nur says the soldiers used so much force the wires cut open their throats. The soldiers warned Nur that the same fate awaited anyone who supported and aided the ONLF.

 

VOA has not been able to independently verify these accounts. But human rights groups say similar reports of murder, rape, torture, and other serious violations against civilians in the ****** have risen sharply since Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi launched the military campaign nearly three months ago.

 

In April, suspected ONLF rebels attacked a Chinese-run oil field in the ****** and killed 74 people, including dozens of Ethiopian guards.

 

That incident is widely believed to have triggered the crackdown against the ONLF, which has also included food and trade blockades in the remote southern region.

 

Human rights groups say the blockades are causing hunger and widespread civilian suffering. The Ethiopian government defends the blockades as a way to stop weapons from reaching the rebels.

 

Addis Ababa calls the ONLF a terror group and says it is being armed and funded by Ethiopia's archrival in the Horn of Africa, Eritrea.

 

The director of the London-based Center for Development Research and Advocacy, Farah Abdulsamed Farah, says his group has investigated human rights abuse allegations in the ****** many times before.

 

But he says what is happening there now is far beyond mere allegations. He accuses Prime Minister Meles' ethnically Tigrayan-dominated regime of attempting to wipe out the entire Somali population in the ******.

 

"This campaign has been conducted in a wrong way to punish the people," he said. "There is no assistance or logistics ****** [people] can provide to the ONLF. The reason behind targeting the civilians is race, 'You are an ******, the ONLF is ******. I have to kill you.' It has the same scale of crisis, which we consider genocide."

 

The senior advisor to Prime Minister Meles, Bereket Simon, says nothing can be farther from the truth.

 

"This is a far-fetched story circulated by the human rights organizations," he said. "There is no genocide. There is no attack on civilians, any crime whatsoever. We have singled out the terrorists and we are not attacking civilians. The civilians are on our side, so simply this is an outrageous accusation."

 

The weeklong U.N. fact-finding mission that began on Thursday is primarily focused on assessing the food, water and health needs of civilians in the ******.

 

But the mission is also under enormous pressure to begin investigating war crimes and genocide allegations against the Ethiopian government and its military.

 

Source: VOA, Aug 31, 2007

[BiLaaL]

Guddi xaqiiqo raadin ah oo ka socda Q.M oo gaaray gobolka ismaamulka Somalida Ethiopia

 

Mogadishu 01, Sept. 07 ( Sh.M.Network)

 

Guddi xaqiiqo raadin ah oo ka socda Q.M ayaa gaaray gobolka Soomaalida ay degto ee ku yaalla bariga dalka Ethiopia, halkaasoo dowlada Ethiopia ay kula dagaalamayso ururka ONLF, iyadoo ay jiraan xadgudubyo dhinaca xaquuqda aadanaha ah.

 

Aggaasimaha barnaamijka horumarinta ee Q.M ee UNDP Sam Barnes ayaa sheegay in guddiga uu baaritaan ku sameyn doono dhibaatada laga sheegayo gobolkaasi, iyagoo halkaasi joogi doonaan mudo todobaad ah.

 

Barnes oo ku sugan Addis Ababa ayaa u sheegay wakaalada wararka ee AFP in guddiga uu eegi doono dhibaatoyinka xaga bani’aadnimada ee asal ahaan ka jira gobolka Soomaalida ee Ethiopia.

 

Gobolka oo xaduud la leh dalka ay deganaanshiyo la’aanta ay ka jirto ee Soomaaliya ayaa waxaa saarnaa talaabo si weyn loogula soconayo dhaqdhaqaaqiisa ilaa bishii June ee sanadkan markaasoo ciidamada Ethiopia ay qaadeen olole ka dhan ah jabhada xoreynta ******.

 

Kooxaha u dooda xaquuqda aadanaha ayaa ku eedeeyey ciidamada Ethiopia inay burburiyeen tuulooyin ayna barakiciyeen kumaan kun oo rayid ah wixii ka dambeeyey bishii April markaasoo weerar lagu qaaday goob shidaal laga qodayey, halkaasoo lagu dilay 77 oo ay ku jiraan shaqaale Chinese ah.

 

ONLF, oo sheegatay mas’uuliyada weerarkaasi, ayaa hadda sheegaysa in dowlada Ethiopia ay ugu hanjabtay rayidka inay la kulmaan cawaaqib xumo haddii ay u waramaan guddiga Q.M.

Bayaan ay soo saartay ONLF ayey ku sheegtay in dadka tuulo jooga ah iyo xoolo-dhaqatada ah loo sheegay in la dhibaateenayo haddii ay u xog waramaan oo ay gudiga xaqiiqo raadinta u sheegaan dembiyada dagaalka ee dhacay.

 

Kooxda ayaa sheegatay in ciidamada Ethiopia ay baabi’iyen tuulada Marameydh oo u dhaxeysa magaalooyinka Garbo iyo Dhenaan ee gobolka ******, laakiin ma aysan sheegin khasaaraha meelahaasi ka dhacay.

 

ONLF waxa ay sidoo kale bayaankeeda ku sheegtay in ay ugu baaqayso Q.M inay baaritaan ku sameyso guud ahaan gobolka ayna damaanad qaado badbaadada dadka rayidka ee loo diidan yahay inay xog waramaan.

 

Kooxda mucaaradka ayaa ku eedeysay xukuumada Addis Ababa in ay xayireen ganacsiga gobolka iyo inay ka dambeyso tacadiyada ka jira gobolka Soomaalida.

 

ONLF, oo la aasaasay 1984-kii ayaa u dagaalamaysa in gobolka Soomaalida auu madaxbanaani ka helo Ethiopia inteeda kale.

[BiLaaL]

UN to examine needs, violence in Ethiopia's ******

 

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The United Nations plans to send a fact-finding mission to Ethiopia's ****** region where separatist rebels who killed 74 people in an April attack say they are facing the toughest government crackdown in years.

 

The mission, due to start on Aug. 30, will assess allegations by the rebels and rights groups of human rights abuses as well as the food, water and health needs of ******'s ethnic Somalis.

 

The remote region bordering Somalia has come under growing scrutiny since the government launched a campaign two months ago to flush out ****** National Liberation Front (ONLF) rebels after they carried out one of their bloodiest attacks on a Chinese-run oil exploration field in April.

 

Rights groups accuse soldiers of shooting civilians, burning homes and seizing livestock in its hunt for the ONLF, which wants more autonomy for the area believed to be rich in oil and gas.

 

"The information coming from the Somali region since the beginning of the Ethiopian government campaign against the ONLF has been secondhand, and it has been worrying," Paul Hebert, head of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia, told Reuters on Wednesday.

 

"This is a humanitarian assessment but we will be looking at protection issues, particularly involving women and children."

 

The 14-person team has received the government's go-ahead to meet whomever they wish.

 

But, asked if it would meet ONLF representatives, Hebert said: "We will not be seeking out armed groups."

 

The ONLF says a trade blockade is choking food supplies and causing starvation in the region inhabited mostly by nomadic herders estimated to number between four to 10 million.

 

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi calls the ONLF terrorists and says they are funded by neighbour and arch-foe Eritrea. He has repeatedly asserted his right to ensure security throughout the vast Horn of Africa country of 81 million.

 

The ONLF welcomed the mission saying it was a first step to addressing the "manmade humanitarian catastrophe" in ******.

 

"We call on the United Nations not to limit the scope of this mission to a humanitarian assessment but to include a preliminary investigation of war crimes being committed against our people by the current ... regime," it said in a statement.

 

Local authorities expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross this month, accusing the aid agency, one of the few operating there, of consorting with rebels.

 

The U.N. mission will include staff from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the agencies dealing with child welfare, food and health.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Dankis, Bilaal. We appreciate your informing news articles, brother.

[Jacaylbaro]

Ethiopia's Darfur is coming so close ..... the western gaalo can't close their eyes